Hi,
For the first year ever some blue tits decided to nest in the box I put up two years ago. I was over the moon and the past couple of weeks have been so happy for me watching the parents come and go.
As soon as I realised they were there I bought a Usogood wildlife camera which I set up on our garden fence about 3 metres from the bird box to watch them come and go but no matter what I did (set it to high sensitivity, tried re-positioning it for a better angle), it didn’t pick up any of their movement. It did pick up me and my husband walking about or our dog - but no blue tits!
Then, last Sunday whilst we were out, the blue tits all left and so the chance to film them was lost. I would have loved to see the babies coming out of the box and see how many there were. I checked the box last night (have left the nest there) because I was certain they had gone and found two dead chicks (one very small pushed right down into the nest, the other one larger on top of the nest) and an unhatched egg which was sad but I’m hoping this is not that uncommon. We gave them a little burial in the garden last night before bed and said a few words.
Anyway, I’m hoping the blue tits will return next year but in the meantime I’d really love some recommendations for a good wildlife camera that is sensitive enough to pick up their movement to be positioned outside of the nest box, about 3m away, please. I’d like to put one up asap to capture the other birds in the garden also. I don’t think I’ll get a nest box camera for inside the box as I’d get upset seeing any chicks suffering/dying, although I do realise it’s nature. I’m happy to invest in a good camera that will capture as much detail as possible.
Thank you in advance.
I've had a lot of experience with trail cams. You will have to be very, very, very lucky to get photos or videos of blue tits flying into and out of the nest box. They are just too fast. Indeed, all animals are largely too fast.
To explain.
Most all trail cam manufacturers tout their TRIGGER speed or time. These range from 0.1 seconds (very fast) to 0.5 second (very slow).
The trigger speed is the time it takes for the trail cam to realise something has moved and it should then activate. How it activates depends on what you have instructed it to do. Generally, the three options are 1. Take one or more photos. 2. Take a video. 3. Take one or more photos followed by a video.
What trail camera manufacturers don't tell you is the time for it to start taking a photograph or video.
Generally, AFTER triggering, the time a trail cam takes to take a photo can range between 0.3 seconds (very, very fast) through 1 second to as much as 2 seconds! The time a trail came takes to get around to videoing can be as much as 3 seconds.
A walking human can cover between 1 and 2 metres in a second. A running human can cover between 5 and 10 metres in a second - the higher value being someone Usain Bolt.
Now think how fast a blue tit flies.
Thus considering the shortest time to take a photo: trigger time + time to photo = 0.1 + 0.3 = 0.4 seconds at it's fastest. A blue tit will easily cover 5 to 10 metres in 0.4 seconds to be in and out of its nest box before your trail cam can take a photo.
I set my trail cams to take photos first then a 10 second video. That way I've cut down considerably on the amount of what appear to be misfires i.e. nothing in photos or video. Many times I get one photo with the creature, two without, and an empty video - and this is for a badger or fox running across the field of the camera.
A strategy to help you at least get a video of a blue tit flying out of nest box.
From what I've seen on t'tele, when feeding their chicks, an adult will generally fly in, spend a few seconds feeding a chick, then fly out. Similarly, when chicks fledge, they sometimes look out of the nest hole for a bit, before flying out. This should trigger the trail cam to at least take a photo of the bird looking out of nest. If you are really, really lucky the bird might trigger the cam, then wait a second or two before flying out, in which case you may get a photo.
Thus, set video time to, say, 1 minute. Much more than that an you may fill up SD card with lots of empty video. As it is, you'll get a lot of empty space.
Also set the interval time between firings to, say, 10 to 30 seconds. I do this with my trail cams.
The only other solution is to get a helmet cam. Point that at nest, and let it run for however long the SD card will allow - typically 1.5 - 3 hours. Review by fast forward on computer.
90% luck, 5% field craft, 5% camera skills.